FASTED AM
20min walk and barn chores
531 CYCLE 5
Wave 3
Session 3
BENCH
45 (10)
135 (3)
150 (5)
170 (3)
190 (2)
I was having trouble with cramping during all the sets and it led to a bit of a disaster on the last set. I was cramping up just right of the centre of my back. I've been working on my bench form, on bringing my shoulder blades back and pushing myself away from the bar. Last set I was gunning for 3 reps but on rep 2 I cramped badly mid-back and then in the left hip too. It was bad and I racked the bar. I wanted that last rep though and i paused and unracked brought the bar down, cramped up again and now I was in trouble. Totally pinned under the bar and no chance of lifting up. I don't put collars on just for this reason so I was able to ditch the weights off the bar luckily. And that makes a lot of noise by the way.
DECLINE BENCH
110 (10, 10, 10, 10, 10)
CABLE PUSHDOWN
70 (12, 10)
NECK HARNESS
30 (25, 25, 25, 25)
RECOVERY
meal 1 coffee, oatmeal, cottage cheese
meal 2 chicken and rice
meal 3 chicken and rice
meal 4 shake with oats and whey
meal 5 chicken, potato, asparagus, bread
meal 6 water and whey
Following your progress. Had a quick question:I'm 37 yr old and curious to know how you feel about the GSLP vs 5/3/1 for people of our 'advanced age'. Did you feel it was difficult to recover?
ReplyDeleteMy numbers are pitifully low when I ran through SS. My work-sets were like press 130 x 5 x 3, bench of around 200 x 5 x 3, deads at 305, and squat as awful because of numerous reasons.
I've now gone to 5/3/1 because I like the recovery. I'm on my 3rd month of it, and my numbers are lower b/c mainly JW recommends to start low. However, I'm getting impatient with the slower gains (which I understand is by design) and thinking about programming jumping to GSLP.
Also, I don't want to add too much fat (i'm 5'11'' and 196 lb).
All this makes me think I may need to go the JP Consult route...
I think 531 or GSLP are both well-suited to the more mature, aching-kneed trainee when compared to SS. I ran SS to pretty close to your numbers too and found squat recovery to be an issue. Every workout required a challenging and heavy squat and it started to wear on me mentally probably even more than physically. That said I can't thank SS enough for getting my numbers up to where they are. I followed SS to the letter and it really worked.
ReplyDeleteI switched to GSLP before 531 but what I found was it required a chinup component and I was sadly unable to do even one. Plus it was a busy time for me so workout times were an issue. For me the beauty of 531 (I'm doing the Boring But Big) is that the workouts can be as brief as I need them to be. I can hit the one major lift and pack it in or do 90 minutes of accessory if I feel like it. I'm not sure what your goals are but for me getting big numbers really fast is not important anymore. It used to be but right now I'm enjoying the process and staying healthy, well-rested, and injury-free. My numbers go up steadily and I'm not unhappy with the weight I do lift. And since I've been following Johnny Pain I've slowly started to put on muscle, or building a suit of armour as he's put it.
But just yesterday I had convinced myself that at the end of this 531 cycle I was going to go back to GSLP. Ultimately I know I've got enough strength to handle a little more rapid linear progression and now I'm capable of multiple triples on the chinups. And all my other programming comes from strength villain so why not my weight routine.
As far as not adding too much fat goes I recommend JP's book Swole that just came out. I follow strength villain regularly and thought I knew all about what to eat but the book put the whole big picture together for me. Turns out I was eating too much even if it was high quality.
Final answer: in my opinion they are both good for older types but GSLP will more quickly squeeze what LP is left in a trainee that's just done SS.
Thanks for the input. My squat numbers are so low compared to my other lifts and part of that is def. psychological - putting a heavy barbell on my back scares me for some crazy reason.
ReplyDeleteI may look into getting JP's Swole. Did you also purchase his GSLP e-book? I'm hesitant to drop the $$ for both; but it appears that you feel Swole is worth it.
Thanks again!
No problem!
ReplyDeleteIf you were to get just one I would pick SWOLE (if you're into more of a BB type diet) because it lays out the framework for the whole plan using the pieces hinted at in the forum. You could probably get by without the GSLP ebook and piece it together from the thread on his forum. Plus he'll answer your questions too.
And despite what I posted up above I think I'm going to stick with 531 for another cycle. I did up a spreadsheet for both programs and after a day or 2 of thinking I changed my mind. I'm not unhappy with 531, it's working, it's fun, I think I'll see it through for a while.
You should start your own log!